I was in an airport bookstore the other day and saw this:
It struck me as funny. First of all, I didn’t realize that “Famous” was a genre. Second of all… Well, isn’t the whole point of being famous that people know who you are? And that they would be looking for your books anyway, no matter where they’re shelved? Is it necessary to break out the “famous authors” into their own category? I mean, really — would a buyer look over the shelves and think, “Oh, I want to buy the new book by [FAMOUS AUTHOR] but how will I ever find it on that shelf with all of the non-famous people!”
Of course, the benefit of this system is that if you’re an author wondering if you’re famous or not, you can just look on this shelf and find out. Which is nice.